Do pets care about music? My dog was indifferent toward it even back when she could hear, but big-box pet store Petsmart is putting in a new music system meant to soothe pets (in the boarding area) and energize their owners (in the shopping area). Will it work? Maybe as long as people think it does, and people control the wallets, that’s good enough. [More]

A few years ago, we brought you a story about a pet store thief removing two puppies from a pet store by shoving them down his pants. Last week in Portland, OR, a pet store’s surveillance cameras caught a man on camera who used this method to conceal a pricey python and walk out of the store unnoticed. [More]

Petco and PetSmart are the two largest pet retailers in the United States: about 50% of all money spent in pet stores nationwide goes to one of the two chains. The two companies have given each other a good sniff and considered merging in the past, but after some changes of ownership are considering it again. [More]

The call to police in Aiken, South Carolina seemed wacky but plausible: a man who worked at a pet store called to report a burglary. He said that a 100-pound mountain lion worth $35,000 was missing from the store, and had either been stolen during a burglary or had taken advantage of the opportunity to escape. Turns out there was no missing mountain lion. There was no mountain lion at all. [More]

When a California woman picked up her daughter’s dog from his grooming appointment, it was obvious that something was wrong. The Shih Tzu was walking on three legs, not putting his right rear paw down on the ground. While the groomer admitted that she had pulled on that leg to get the animal into position to be groomed, nothing else seemed amiss. Or so the store claims. [More]

If my heart had eyes it would be sobbing loudly over what could have been a fiery fate for 27 puppies in Las Vegas. A pet store owner accused of torching her shop while the puppies were inside has been jailed for arson — and yes, firefighters were able to rescue the puppies. Sigh, there go my heart eyes again. [More]

Most of us have the next couple of days off from work, which is fine since most of us have jobs where the well-being of a domesticated animal is not at stake. But one PetSmart volunteer says Corporate HQ has decreed that employees can’t come in on Christmas to check on the cats in the stores, which he believes is putting these animals at risk. [More]

Puppies are small, cuddly, and pricey, so why not stuff some down your pants and shoplift them? That was the logic of a man in Florida, who stuffed a dachsund puppy and a pug puppy down his pants on two separate trips to an Orlando pet store. [More]

Following similar bans by smaller municipalities in the U.S. and Canada, the Los Angeles City Council has tentatively adopted a ban on pet stores’ sales of many animals obtained from commercial breeders. [More]

What sets a quality retail thief apart from your run-of-the-mill shoplifter is their ability to adapt. Take for example, the man in NYC who, realizing that he couldn’t crack open the cash register, saw possibility for profit by stashing a pricey puppy in his pants.

Just because something is on sale, even a sale only available to holders of a store’s discount card, that doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. Want a real-life example? Here, the sale price of a container of cat litter is higher than the sale price of a container that’s actually larger. Fuzzy math, or subtle bias against customers who aren’t able to carry a 31-pound box?

Sadie, a beloved 6-year-old Lhasa Apso in good health, died in 2008 after a regular grooming session at a California Petco. She became ill while inside a cage dryer, a kennel with an air blower attached (sometimes heated, sometimes not) and was immediately taken for emergency medical care. The veterinarian treating her concluded that the dog died of “severe heatstroke.” But was the heatstroke caused by the actions of Petco’s employees, as her owner’s lawsuit alleges?

Oh, it happens far more often than any of us are willing to admit. You go out one evening and have a few drinks too many, and the next thing you know, you wake up to find a strange beagle in your bed, wagging its tail, and a credit card receipt from a pet store. Dog? What dog? You never wanted a dog…at least, not when you’re sober. This scenario is enough of an actual problem for some Manhattan pet stores located near bars and clubs that they will turn away customers who have clearly been drinking.

A few months ago, in an effort to not contribute to the puppy mills and kitty factories of the world, San Francisco began mulling over the possibility of forbidden canine and feline sales within city limits. But, as happens when the discussion turns to the critters of the world, that ban has now grown to include just about everything you would ever want to even consider having as a pet.

If a coupon says that it expires on July 4th, most people assume this means that you can use it on July 4th. Not so, in Petsmart’s universe. In their coupon vortex, July 4 ends at 6:00 AM on July 4th. Which is a little weird for an online coupon, but completely insane for a printable in-store coupon when no Petsmart store opens until several hours later.

Jack is an animal lover and a mechanic. He writes that when he went to fix a habitat door at a local Petsmart store, he found a dead parakeet trapped inside a hollow part of the door. It wasn’t the dead bird that bothered him the most, though: it was the manager’s total lack of concern about the situation. He was upset enough to e-mail Consumerist. (Warning: post contains non-graphic dead pet photo.)

When visiting a pet store that allows leashed pets to visit, is it unreasonable to keep an eye out for dog poop? Inside the store? The Virginian-Pilot reports that a man is suing Petsmart in federal court after slipping and falling on a pile of feces in a Norfolk, Va. store. He alleges that the fall exacerbated his existing back injury and knocked out four of his false teeth.

West Hollywood has a history of animal rights activism, culminating most recently in the 2003 ban on declawing cats. Tonight, the city council is expected to pass an ordinance that will ban pet stores from selling cats and dogs, reports the Los Angeles Times. If enacted, it will be the second place that bans such business after South Lake Tahoe, which is also in California but right up against the Nevada border. “Humanely bred, reared, or sheltered animals” would be exempt, notes the paper. Also worth noting: there are no pet stores within the city limits.